Scott's 1988 Mazda MX-6 GT

ScreaminE wrote: In reply to DuctTape&Bondo: I got mine (OEM Mazda) from eBay. Must be a common Mazda sized O-ring because it fit a wide variety of Mazdas old and new. $9 shipped from eBay. Mazda part no. F20118201 is what I got. I have used the parts house o-rings in the past on my Miata with no issues. When will we see updates on your car?

Thanks Scott, I think I'll try the HarborFreight route first so I can hopefully get it all buttoned up this weekend. I'm trying to smog and register, have done some things to it but it's all deferred maintenance and repair stuff.

Got the EVO wheels on the car. I really like the look, but had to put 20mm spacers on the rear to make clear. Now the rears stick out a lot. Had I gone any less than 20mm, they wouldn't have fit. Looks like I will have to get another set for the front to even it out. Then some serious rolling of fenders and/or flares.

That thing would look mean if you took those box-flare-ish body lines and made box flares...

It's probably cheaper/easier to flip those wheels and get ones that fit better, though. But this board wouldn't exist if we did stuff the easy way, would it?

16x8 50mm offset with 3/4" spacers fits just fine, so the ~1mm difference with the 20mm spacer shouldn't really matter. Roll and pull the rear fender and be happy you aren't trying to fit 17x10s under there.

Been a while since I've updated. Got my catalytic convertor put back on a few weekends ago. Also changed a couple of the shifter bushings only to discover that there is one that is "non-serviceable." I also discovered that the sway bar bushings are well, gone. As in not there gone. I was able to get the part no.'s from MX6.com and will be ordering new Energy Suspension sway bar bushings and end links soon.

Onto my real problem with this car. The day the seller left I got in the car to drive up the street. Car started bucking and stumbling like a mad mule. CEL was flashing and I couldn't figure out what was going on. I was able to pull the codes last week and came up with a code 08 Vane Airflow Signal (VAFSIG). After some googling I found this picture for the VAF pinouts:

Long story short, I'm not getting a signal to the Fc (fuel pump switch). I'm also only getting 12v to the Vc pin whenever I really push hard on the plug. I'm assuming that either the plug or VAF are shot. I'm replacing both. The no 12v source to the Fc pin scares me however. Whenever I removed the Auxiliary fuel pump for the extra injectors, I had to re-connect a wire that was spliced going into the main underhood fuse block (white with green stripe). I was hoping James, Dan, or Ben could check in the FSM to see if they could identify the white/green wire? Either way, I'm going to replace the plug and VAF because they are so cheap. Hopefully that fixes the problem.

In other news, my 18 month old daughter has already became car crazy. When I get home from work, she wants to go straight to the garage and work on the cars. Here she is helping me put the door panel back on the MX-6.

twopointwo wrote: 16x8 50mm offset with 3/4" spacers fits just fine, so the ~1mm difference with the 20mm spacer shouldn't really matter. Roll and pull the rear fender and be happy you aren't trying to fit 17x10s under there.

Oh hush, you.

I don't have an 88 FSM physically but...

If i haven't linked this already to you, i'm very sorry. You'll need this link:

http://manuals.wibla.net/mazda/

The 89 should be the same.

In reply to Swank Force One:

Thank you, sir. I feel stupid trying to read those wiring diagrams however.

I'm very confused and maybe someone with way more experience with wiring diagrams can help me out. So I am not getting 12v to the LG (light green) wire shown on the bottom left of page 50-23. Is this showing that it is going to the relay shown on page 50-20? If so, how can I figure out where that relay is.

http://manuals.wibla.net/mazda/1989%20Mazda%20MX-6%20Wiring%20Diagram%20v3beta3.pdf

I'll take a look when I get home. My '92 WSM has all the relay locations in it. It's not an '89, but it'll be somewhere to look. It's also a Probe manual on second thought, so it may be no help at all.

The problem was the air fuel meter (VAF). Got a known good one eBay and the car runs like it should. Cranked the boost to 15 psi per the chip I installed and wow. Car runs like a spotted pup. Swank says I should be north of 240wtq and it feels like it. I have only driven a few turbo cars, but this one is stout!

Next up are some energy suspension sway bar links and bushings.

Stay tuned!

Since getting a new VAF on the car, I decided to take the EVO wheels off the car. They were just too damn big and bulky. Paid $100, sold for $500 (score!) I didn't want to roll fenders on a car that survived so long in such great shape. Found a set of 16" Eclipse "ninja star" wheels from Craigslist to throw back on the car. I really think they suit the car very well and just look right.

Onto the bad. I'm selling the car. I guess it just doesn't appeal to me like I wanted it to. Although it runs excellent and feels solid, it just doesn't seem like the best car to take to a track day. I'm really not sure if turbo cars are for me. After getting into parting out Focus SVTs, it's make me want another pretty badly. I have someone coming today or tomorrow to put a deposit down on the car,but if anyone is interested let me know. Loosing money at this point, but thats how it goes. I know Ben (SFO) will hate me now.

I won't hate you. Scalpels, these cars are not. I think they'd be a riot of a track day car, but it's about as far as you can get from a Miata while staying in the same parent company.

It takes a certain person to really bond with these cars.

Swank Force One wrote: I think they'd be a riot of a track day car, but it's about as far as you can get from a Miata while staying in the same parent company.

That would be this:

I realize this thread is almost 5yrs old but just so you know, I purchased this car from someone after you! The kid I got it from worked at PRL and blew it up on the dyno. Ive had it a couple yrs now but havent been able to really work on it.  I like James(who is also local to me), have sereral mx6s, 4 mx6(2 gts and 2 lx), 1 626gt 4ws, and a 87 626gt hatchback.

Awesome. Please keep some updates going in this thread. 

Looking back now this car really was a hoot. I lost patience to fix the little things it needed and moved on. Kind of wish I would have stuck with it, but kinda not. 

When I bought it, it still had the ninja stars on it but at the time I had a 97 prelude with the O.Z. wheels from the eclipse(more or less OE RPF1) so I swapped them on to it.  Started to swap the FE3N into it but decided to go back to the F2T now.  I saw a FS post for some eclipse parts(I think thats what it was) that you had put up, by chance have a 14b or 16g you'd part with? I'm going to have a manifold modified to accept a tdo# flange or change the hot side of the turbo to a t-3 flange.

In reply to MTRCRMX6 :

Awesome. I don’t have a 14b or 16g for sale, but if you check the “DSM classifieds” page on Facebook, you can pick them up for dirt cheap. I got the 14b that’s on my 2g DSM for $80 shipped. Speaking of Eclipse wheels, the ones on my 2g are my fav.